"I came here just for fun and getting the biggest prize is a total surprise. I have been a fisherman since childhood when my dad started to take me to fishing," she told Agence France Presse.

Organizers said fishing is one of the most popular hobbies in Estonia, a small Baltic nation of 1.3 million people, and that nearly 8,000 people turned out for the festival, supported on the lake by a 30-centimeter (12-inch) layer of ice.

"It is one of the biggest fishing competitions in world," judge Martin Meier said.